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Rai/History
Background Childhood Rai was born in a small rural farming village in the Earth Kingdom and she had a younger brother named Arata. While Rai occasionally teased her brother for his small size and lack of bending, she nonetheless cared a great deal about him and even protected him from other bulllies. She spent most of her time helping on her parents' farm and eventually discovered she was an earthbender. However, this peaceful bliss would not last. Rai's home was attacked by slavers, who killed all the adults and burned the village to the ground before taking all the children. Slavery Rai was eventually sold to a bandit leader named Goro along with several other children to work as his slaves. Unfortunately, Goro did not purchase Arata and the two siblings were forcibly separated. She suffered constant physical and emotional abuse every day, especially from Goro. Goro had expressed his interest in sleeping with her, but decided to wait until she was little older and more physically developed. During her time as a slave, Rai befriended a younger slave named Kala, with whom she formed a sister-like relationship with. Rai often looked out for Kala when she was afraid or messed up, even taking the blame for her. On one occasion, Rai was sentenced to punishment where she was to be tied to a post for a week without food or water. Kala secretly nourished her during this time despite her protests, for fear that Kala would get in trouble. Rai's fears were well-placed as Kala's actions were discovered. To set an example, Goro ordered Kala to be beaten to death in front of the other slaves. The shock and trauma of witnessing her friend's death triggered the Avatar State within Rai, revealing her as the Avatar. With the sudden emergence of her power, Rai killed Kala's murderer and freed the other slaves, though Goro escaped. Freedom Now freed from slavery, Rai dyed her hair blonde and went into hiding to avoid both her former master, Goro, as well as the White Lotus. Rai did not desire to be publicly outed as the Avatar and took efforts to conceal her identity and never stayed in one place for too long. During this time, she met and befriended Haku, an eel hound that felt an immediate connection to her, likely due to their shared traumatic pasts. Haku became her loyal animal companion and mount. Rai's refusal to accept the duties of the Avatar came from two major beliefs. She viewed the role of the Avatar itself as akin to a form of slavery in which someone is uprooted form their life and forced to become something even if they protest it. Additionally, she felt that the Avatar had no place in dictating human affairs. If the Avatar was given absolute power by the people, how different would that make them from a slave owner? Thus, Rai refused to reveal herself out of refusal to put herself back in a slave position as well as to avoid becoming the thing she hated most. Additionally, since harmony now existed between humans and spirits thanks to the efforts of Avatar Korra, Rai felt the Avatar was not needed. During Rai's wanderings, she found herself in Republic City. Curious about her predecessor, she visited Avatar Korra Park, where she met Takumi. She was slightly confused by his generosity but accepted his offer of food, since she appeared to be homeless. She repaid his kindness by coming to his rescue from a group of thugs hired to kill him. Knowing he was unable to stay in Republic City after this, Rai offered to shepherd him to extended family in the Fire Nation on the condition that Takumi take care of himself and not rely on her for necessities. During the rescue, she inadvertently revealed her Avatar status, but Takumi promised to keep it a secret. Over the course of their travels, Rai slowly began to warm up to Takumi, but kept this to herself. Despite stating that she would not do so, she often came to his rescue and even helped him obtain an ostrich horse. While Rai insisted on keeping a low profile, Takumi often encouraged her to at least stand up and help those in need who could not help themselves. Upon reaching a town with an Air Nomad, Rai was convinced to seek tutelage from the Nomad on her airbending, but instead had Takumi do so in her stead, in order to keep her identity concealed. Regardless of this, the Nomad, Sati, followed them and discovered Rai's identity and joined their group. After killing an ex-slaver from her past, Rai was struck with more trouble when a bloodbender from Goro's band attacked Sati and removed her bending. To Takumi and Sati's surprise, Rai allowed her to stay with them and promised to restore her bending, viewing the attack as a way to harm her through Sati and taking responsibility for it. While tracking down a potential bloodbender to undo the damage, Rai was reunited with fellow ex-slave, Hiro, who had since become a vigilante hunting slavers. Having been desperate to find her, Hiro joins the group as well despite Rai's unease at how quickly he pledges his allegiance to her. At the same time, Sati's bending was restored by an unknown individual, which prompted Rai to lose trust in Sati's judgement. While raiding a slave camp, Rai led the slavers away while the others rescue the enslaved children. During this, Rai came face to face with her brother, Arata, who had become a notorious slaver by the name of Ryota since they were separated. Little was exchanged between them before Ryota fires two arrows into Rai's chest and kicks her over a cliff, seemingly to her death. Rai survived, however, thanks to the efforts of a hermit who happened upon her body on the riverside. Suffering from amnesia over the identity of her attacker, Rai chose to remain in his care until she recovered. Though devastated at realizing what her brother had become in her absence, Rai is convinced by Korra that she must embrace her future rather than be stuck in the past. Reunited with Haku, Rai set out to return to her friends, whom she found had been captured by Ryota. Though he escaped, Rai was able to rescue and reunite with her friends, all of whom were overcome with joy over her return. After raiding several slaver hideouts, Rai followed a prospective lead to Ryota that took her to Ba Sing Se. However, while searching the city, Takumi was kidnapped by Ryota. Rai pursued them to a tower in the Upper Ring where she fought off Ryota's henchmen. Ryota, clearly jealous over the idea of Takumi "replacing" him as Rai's brother despite his hatred of her, forced her to choose which of them to save as he threw himself and Takumi off the tower. Despite her efforts, Rai was only able to save Takumi as Ryota fell to his death. Following this, she spent several days mourning the death of her brother despite what had become of him. After her friends went out, Rai later decided to join them, but was shocked to find them with her former master, Goro. Despite trying to keep calm in the public setting, Rai was ultimately set off when Goro began speaking of Kala and entered the Avatar State to attack him, inadvertently revealing herself as Avatar to the world. Realizing this, Rai fled the city altogether. When her friends finally tracked her down, Rai was horrified to learn that news had already spread of the Avatar's return. However, she chose to focus instead on putting Goro down once and for all, joined by Hiro and Sati. Despite wanting to join, Takumi reluctantly remained behind at Rai's request. During the confrontation, despite their numbers, they were overwhelmed by Goro's sheer mastery of waterbending and bloodbending, incapacitating Sati and Hiro. Rai prepared to surrender herself to save them as Goro began to undress and molest her in an effort to humiliate and break her. Before he could go any further, Goro was taken by surprise by Takumi, who was able to fatally shoot him in the eye. In the aftermath, Rai was relieved to not only have gotten revenge for herself and Kala, but also that she finally felt free from the chains that bound her. Category:History (fan) Category:A to Z